There are a number of applications where persons are required to wear protective clothing or garments in order to avoid contact with contaminated materials. One of the more important applications for anti-contamination protective clothing is in the nuclear power industry. Radiation from nuclear fuel activates or makes radioactive everything it comes in contact with. This includes pumps conduits, and other mechanical components of the reactor cooling system as well as air borne dust and particulates. These contaminants are like an invisible dust that effectively settles on everything in a room that has been exposed to radioactive energy.
Employees of nuclear power facilities are required to work on the working components of the facility. In order to avoid contamination from exposed materials, such employees wear an elaborate system of protective clothing. Typically such protective clothing includes light weight nylon coveralls having a very tight weave so that the coveralls have a low micron pore size that resists infiltration of particulate materials. Such persons also wear rubber gloves under and over the arm cuffs in the coveralls, and they wear booties that fit under the leg cuffs and rubber shoes that fit over the booties. A hood is worn over the head. To avoid infiltration through the cuffs of the arms and legs, the common practice has been to wrap two inch wide masking tape or duct tape around the cuffs of the arms and legs of the coveralls. The zipper of the coveralls is also covered with the same type of tape. At the end of the work day, the worker is then required to strip the tape off the uniform. This procedure is laborious and time consuming and produces hazardous waste in the form of exposed tape. Hazardous waste frequently has to be shipped to a remote disposal facility where the waste is either buried or incinerated under very special conditions and filtration. Moreover, masking tape does not always perform well especially when it gets wet, and it can lose it sealing effectiveness. The danger from radioactive materials is so serious that the most stringent precautions are taken to avoid contamination from particulate materials that one might come in contact in working in a room that has been exposed to radioactive energy.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved cuff seal for sealing the arm and leg cuffs of protective clothing against contamination without producing disposable materials that present radioactive disposal problems.